North Korean Missile Over Japan Triggers Sirens

Kim Jong-un escalated his military stance early Tuesday, Aug. 29, by firing a ballistic missile over Japan’s northern Island of Hokkaido. It broke up into three pieces and landed in Japan’s Pacific, 200km from the island’s coast, after flying 2,700km. The Japanese government issued a warning over radio and TV as sirens blared and text messages were fired off across northern Japan instructing people in the missile’s flight path to take cover.

The UN Security Council called an emergency meeting for later Tuesday, after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. "This reckless act of launching a missile that flies over our country is an unprecedented, serious and important threat."